Over 354 million people worldwide live with chronic hepatitis; over 8,000 new infections of hepatitis B and C occur every day, and more than one million deaths from advanced liver disease and liver cancer occur every year, according to the World Health Organization.

World Hepatitis Day is celebrated worldwide on July 28. This year the occasion was held with the theme “Hepatitis can’t wait”, calling on all countries to work together to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030.

Iran is planning to provide free diagnosis and treatment services to people who are suffering from hepatitis and eradicate the disease by 2030.

“By 2030, if we could reduce the incidence of hepatitis by up to 90 percent and decrease mortality by 65 percent, we would have implemented the elimination program as planned by the World Health Organization,” Rashid Ramezani, an official with the Ministry of Health, explained.

“Some 1.5 million Iranians are diagnosed with hepatitis B and less than 200,000 people with hepatitis C; nearly 3,000 people are infected with hepatitis C each year,” he added.

WHO recently launched first-ever global guidance for countries seeking to validate the elimination of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and/or hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection as a public health problem.

While progress has been made in the hepatitis response, there is still a long way to go. In far too many countries, priority interventions remain inaccessible to the populations most severely affected or at higher risk.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impeded the development and delivery of core services that tackle viral hepatitis and other infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

However, only 10 percent of patients are aware of their disease, which increases the importance of awareness and diagnostic programs, he said, regretting, 1.4 million deaths per year are caused by hepatitis.

Just as Iran has succeeded in producing generic drugs for the definitive treatment of hepatitis C under U.S. sanctions, it is now considering eliminating the costly hepatitis C test by researching to develop a simple, low-cost blood test. The project has begun and is in the process of being tested on samples.

Elimination of hepatitis C

Complete control of hepatitis C in Iran with the global “point elimination” strategy needs to address several key challenges. One of these challenges is the lack of accurate statistics on people at high risk for hepatitis C, Amir Ali Sohrabpour, the head of the Iranian Hepatitis Network, has said.

While it is necessary to identify 20,000 patients with hepatitis C in Iran annually, only 10 percent of hepatitis C patients have been identified; Therefore, it seems that the challenge of identifying and accurate statistics of high-risk groups in Iran needs a more immediate solution, he added.

On the other hand, the provinces with high hepatitis C prevalence have not yet been fully identified but is planned to be done, and the country’s medical universities can play an important role, while the prison organization can also help hepatitis network by identifying patients to determine how many prisoners are infected with hepatitis C, he emphasized.

There are 1.5 million drug users in Iran, 300,000 of whom are injecting drugs, but one of the challenges is the need for a full treatment of these high-risk groups, including adequate funding for diagnostic tests and distribution of free medicine, he stated.

The post Hepatitis in Iran: 100% of infants being vaccinated appeared first on Iran News Daily.

In a letter to the Administrative Justice Court, Seyed Moa’yyed Alavian said it is necessary to lift ban on employing hepatitis patients in state bodies, Tasnim reported on Tuesday.

On behalf of 1.6 million hepatitis patients nationwide, Alavian mentioned that some governmental bodies, including the Education Ministry, require pre-employment anti-hepatitis testing for applicants.

“This is scientifically baseless and leads to isolation and cause substantial damage to the patients’ future,” he added.

He went on to say that hepatitis B and C spread through the blood [or body fluids] not by typical interactions such as handshaking in the workplace.

All the newborns have been receiving vaccination for hepatitis B since 1994, so the disease does not threaten the students, he highlighted, adding, “On the other hand hepatitis C is 100 percent curable with new drugs.”

10 percent of all hepatitis C patients in prison

In another letter to Health Minister Hassan Qazizadeh Hashemi, Alavian touched on the fact that hepatitis screening schemes have indicated that 10 percent of all hepatitis C patients are in prisons and recognized this as a good opportunity to fight the disease.

Appreciating the adopted measures of the Health Ministry to control hepatitis in prisons, which have reduced the spreading rate, Alavian called for allocating more budget to provide drugs since most prisoners cannot afford them.

The advent of efficient methods for screening, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C has raised hope for eradicating the disease by 2030, he concluded.

Hepatitis 

Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver. Hepatitis viruses are the most common cause of hepatitis in the world but other infections, toxic substances such as alcohol, certain drugs, and autoimmune diseases can also cause hepatitis.

According the World Health Organization (WHO) there are 5 main hepatitis viruses, referred to as types A, B, C, D and E. Hepatitis is a matter of greatest concern because of the burden of illness and death it causes and the potential for outbreaks and epidemic spread. In particular, types B and C lead to chronic disease in hundreds of millions of people and, together, are the most common cause of liver cirrhosis and cancer.

Ingestion of contaminated food or water are the leading causes of hepatitis A and E. Hepatitis B, C and D usually occur as a result of parenteral contact with infected body fluids. Common modes of transmission for these viruses include receipt of contaminated blood or blood products, invasive medical procedures using contaminated equipment and for hepatitis B transmission from mother to baby at birth, from family member to child, and also by sexual contact.

WHO data show an estimated 325 million people worldwide are living with chronic hepatitis B or chronic hepatitis C. Viral hepatitis caused 1.34 million deaths in 2015, a number comparable to deaths caused by tuberculosis and HIV combined. While deaths from tuberculosis and HIV have been declining, deaths from hepatitis are increasing.

The post Hepatitis Network urges end to employment discrimination appeared first on Iran News Daily.